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Public and Private 
Rights 



BY 



W. W. HOPKINS 



4^*'^^*' 



PRICE. 15 CENTS 



The Christian Publishing Company 
St. Louis 



Public and Private Rights 



J 

By W. W. HOPKINS 

For ten years pastor of the Second Christian Church, 
And six years Assistant Editor of the Christian -Evangelist, St. Louis. 






"The spirit of the I,ord God is upon me ; because the I^ord hath 
,nointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek : he hath sent me 
to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, 
and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. — Isaiah 6i: i. 



St. Louis: 

CHRISTIAN PUBLISHING COMPANY, 

1900. 



27719 



73790 



Hit 



Library of CongreeB 

Two Copies Received 
AUG 1 1900 

Cooy right entry 

SECOND COPY. 

Delivered to 

ORO£R DIVISION, 
AUG 3 1900 



Copyright, 1900, 

BY 

W. W. HOPKINS. 



« 



To all those persons who are seeking the 
freedom, elevation and moral, material, and 
spiritual wellfare of their fellow-men, these 
lines are prayerfully dedicated by 

The Author. 



/ 



PREFACE. 

The dullness of the public conscience toward 
the perversion of public possessions to private 
interests has suggested the need for the follow- 
ing treatise. Our courts distinguish between 
public and private rights in the interpretation of 
our laws, but the principle is not very closely 
adhered to in the political administration of our 
municipal, state and national affairs. The abuses 
of the distinction are so flagrant and widespread 
and the public mind so indifferent about the 
matter that there seems to exist urgent need for 
an awakening on this subject. There is much 
literature indirectly bearing on the subject, but 
nothing pointing out the importance of this dis- 
tinction to our national prosperity in a particular 
way. Even reforms based on the distinction be- 
tween Public and Private Rights have not em- 
phasized the same as its importance demands. If 
the following pages shall, therefore, in any way 
assist in making manifest the importance of this 
distinction and its bearing on society, on our in- 
dustries and on the general welfare of the peo- 
ple, the writer shall feel abundantly rewarded 
for his pains. The Author. 

St. Louis, Mo., July 4, 1900. 



Public and Private Rights 



INTRODUCTION. 

However optimistic our view of the future, we 
cannot close our eyes to the fact that there are 
conditions of life extant in our civilization that 
no thoughtful, unselfish man can view without 
some feeling of indignation, resentment and 
alarm. It is not the purpose of this treatise to 
attempt the portrayal of these conditions, but to 
speak of some of the causes and their present 
most promising remedies. The rapid trend of 
the population from rural toward urban districts; 
the rapid trend of public and private lands to- 
ward fewer lords; the rapid centralization of 
wealth; the frequent labor troubles, low wages, 
strikes, lock-outs, shut-downs, enforced idleness 
and sweat-shop horrors, are but the ominous 
signs of underlying forces which, if not arrested 
or Christianized, mean the overthrow of our na- 
tion. They declare in unmistakable terms the 
existence of radical wrongs somewhere in our 
civilization, g,nd to aid in the discovery and re- 



8 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 

moval of these wrongs is the duty of every law- 
abiding citizen in the nation. 

Alarming as are some of these signs at times, 
we do not predict a national catastrophe, as do 
some, for the reason that there is intelligence, 
moral sentiment and Christianity enough in the 
land to overcome the danger. God has decreed 
the overthrow of all unrighteousness, and his 
plans cannot be defeated. The victory may be 
delayed, but it cannot be prevented. 

But let us not think that these evils will be re- 
moved or remedied independent of human reason 
and human action. God as much expects to es- 
tablish righteousness in the social, civil and the 
industrial departments of life as in the church or 
the individual; and He expects to do it through 
His Word, His Spirit and His people. Here is 
where too many people err. They say — and 
rightly, too — that the gospel is the solvent of all 
our national evils ; but they forget that the gos- 
pel preached only in the churches is a failure; 
that is only putting the light under the bushel. 
The gospel of Christ to be effective in the regen- 
eration of society must be absorbed by it. Its 
righteousness must be crystallized into action in 
the business world, into customs in the social 
world, and into laws in the national domain. 
God's will contemplates the regeneration of so- 
ciety, of communities, of business and of gov- 
ernment, and he who does not so read His Word 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHT.S 9 

fails to comprehend the significance of Christ's 
coronation and reign, of which the conversion of 
the individual is but the beginning. 

Christianity has achieved great victories in the 
past. It met and overthrew idolatry in the Ro- 
man Empire; it has about destroyed civil slavery 
throughout the world; it has elevated woman- 
hood; it has developed the worth of childhood; 
it has modified the tyranny of governments; its 
blessings are peerless and countless, but its work 
is not done. There are other forms of idolatry, 
slavery and oppression to be removed, and this 
is the great work of the church to-day. 

The real work of the church has only just be- 
gun. There are greater and graver problems 
confronting Christianity to-day than ever before. 
The government of our cities, the right use 
of money, the social evil, the liquor traffic, 
the labor problem, the amelioration of the 
masses, and the evangelization of our great 
cities, are all questions of momentous import, 
and to be solved before we are entitled to be 
called a Christian nation. To say that the evils 
of our nation cannot be suppressed, and our 
most intricate and involved social, civil and in- 
dustrial questions solved, is to pronounce the 
reign of Christ a failure, and to refuse to aid in 
their accomplishment is to delay the victory. 

Christians have been too exclusive with their 
Christianity. They have kept it too much con- 



10 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 

fined to churches and Sundays. The religion of 
Christ is not a cathedral ornament, but an every- 
day affair ; and until we begin to exemplify the 
righteousness of God in business, in our indus- 
tries, in politics and in all other departments of 
life, it is a failure and worthless. Remember 
that the leaven in the meal means the gospel in 
the world. 

Some people seem to think that these great 
problems are insolvable. It takes but a mo- 
ment's reflection to see that their solution is im- 
plied in the success of the gospel. Are we not 
told in the Holy Book that righteousness is to 
cover the earth, and that every enemy is to be 
destroyed? The trouble is that the dominant 
powers have never set themselves to the solution 
of the task in a very active and general way; 
neither will they until the pressure of enlight- 
ened public sentiment shall compel them. 

For a long while inventors tried to discover a 
device for coupling cars automatically that would 
be acceptable to the railroads, but seemed to 
fail. The presumption was that the inventions 
submitted to the railroad companies were im- 
practicable. But by and by the States began to 
take cognizance of the matter, and a law was 
passed compelling all railroad companies to 
adopt some self-coupling device instead of the 
old-fashioned, man-killing coupling-links, and in 
due time all complaint about a practical way to 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 11 

do it had ceased. The railroads soon found a 
practical self-coupler. The same principle ap- 
plies in moral reforms. Make public sentiment 
strong enough, and our political parties will soon 
find a practical solution of all our industrial, 
social and civil troubles. 

One reason why so many reform measures fail 
is that they are too superficial, too narrow. Re- 
forms, to be effective, must reach primary 
causes. Take the condition of laboring men for 
an illustration. It is said, for instance, that 
their condition is due to intemperate and im- 
provident living. That there is ground for this 
charge is too sadly true, but the accusation does 
not hold against all laboring men affected by the 
conditions. The real difficulty lies back of the 
character and deportment of the laboring classes. 
All men should live soberly, righteously and 
godly in this present life, for their own and their 
families' sake, but there is no law under heaven 
that compels a man to live on bread and water, 
and keep his family in rags and ignorance, simply 
that he may enable his employer to pay larger 
dividends on watered stock. The laborer and 
his family, and not his employer, are entitled to 
all of the fruits of an economical life over and 
above honest time and honest work for his em- 
ployer. The fact is, labor is not receiving its 
rightful share of the profits thereof, and under 
the present order of things it cannot. It is in- 



19 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 

jured by unjust competition; it is robbed by un- 
scrupulous lawmakers; it is burdened by false 
ideas of government; it is weighed down by 
taxes ; it is compelled to pay dividends on ficti- 
tious captital; it is made the slave of capital. 

Another difficulty in the way of benefiting the 
condition of the laboring class is the prejudice 
that exists against a change in the prevailing cus- 
toms or present order of things; an inexplicable 
fear of new things ; an inexcusable devotion to 
the ways of our fathers. In the first place, there 
are those who are opposed to a change, to re- 
forms, to progress, for purely selfish reasons. 
They are in good positions, a paying business, on 
top, or in some way hold the reins of prosperity, 
and are so inhumanly selfish as to have no con- 
cern for the welfare of others. Such idolatry is 
cruel and unworthy of the protection of a civil- 
ized government. 

There are some, of course, who are conscien- 
tiously opposed to changes. They think that 
because things have been as they have so long 
they must ever remain so; and, to their minds, 
all efforts at reforms are but wasted energies. 
And yet the logic of their position, if enforced, 
would arrest all progress, defeat all the promises 
of God, and continue to lay all advantages in this 
world at the feet of unscrupulous and wicked 
men. 

But we have come to an age of the world in 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 13 

which reason and righteousness are demanding a 
higher and broader application in the affairs of 
men. Nothing, however hoarj with age, is too 
sacred for criticism. There was a time when the 
criticism of established customs, laws and gov- 
ernments endangered the life of the critic, but 
that day is past. The spirit of investigation is 
in the air, and no man can stay its work. There 
is a growing consciousness of wrong woven into 
the fabric of things that have come down to us 
from the past, and an enlightened human nature 
is demanding an investigation of the facts ; there 
is a growing sense of unfairness and unreason- 
ableness in the fortunes and misfortunes of men, 
and an awakened public conscience is demanding 
a correction of the evil; there is an increasing 
sense of injustice underlying civil and industrial 
affairs, and an enlightened public sentiment is 
crying out against the iniquity. 

There was a time when any departure from es- 
tablished customs, tradition, creed or party was 
considered the greatest wrong within the moral 
domain. It was called the sin of heresy, and it 
outranked all other sins. But a better concep- 
tion of righteousness has dawned, and we are 
beginning to make room for the golden rule. 

Sin and iniquity are by no means confined to 
the common people. Criminals are to be found 
in the uppermost seats in the synagogue and in 
the social, civil, industrial and commercial high 



14 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 

places in the land. Some of these may be un- 
conscious of the nature of their character, but 
they are none the less the enemies of righteous- 
ness, of humanity and of God. To them the 
present order of things is good enough, and they 
are opposed to anything that would disturb their 
gains. To all such persons all reformers are dis- 
turbers of the peace, enemies, anarchists. That 
the many should be the servants of the few, and 
must so remain while the world stands, they re- 
gard a part of the divine economy. 

But there is another view of things rapidly 
coming to the front founded upon the father- 
hood of God and the brotherhood of man, and 
before this new conception the old order of 
things must give way. The days of the oppressor 
in the industrial world are numbered; piracy in 
public utilities is beginning to be outlawed, and 
the political boss is beginning to feel the pressure 
of public disapproval. Man is a brotherhood, 
and governments must be so adjusted that the 
rights of the humblest subjects will not be vio- 
lated. The strong men who now hold the posi- 
tions of favor in the world will not willingly 
surrender to the new order of things, but the 
battle is on, and will not end until we have that 
"new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth 
righteousness" of which God's inspired seers 
have sung. 

That the present order of things in our social, 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 15 

civil and industrial systems is imperfect is a self- 
evident proposition. Man, coming out of the 
ignorance and darkness of the past, could not 
invent perfect institutions. He could only de- 
vise according to his ability, and revise according 
to later experiences. Civilizations, like children, 
outgrow their garments. We have only to look 
at our present social and industrial conditions to 
see the truth of this statement. 

Any government in which the few grow rich 
and the many poor is certainly faulty. That we 
have the finest country and government in the 
world is admitted, but that is no reason why we 
should not have a better one if we can. And so 
long as the present striking contrasts between 
poverty and wealth exist, who shall say that there 
is no room for improvement? 



FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES. 

A man can no more live apart from his fellow- 
men and prosper, as he ought to prosper, than 
he can live without food. Society is essential to 
his proper development. Men will organize into 
societies for social, civil, commercial, industrial, 
moral, religious, and other purposes, and these 
organic collective bodies must be endowed with 
certain rights and possessions in order to the 
fulfillment of their respective missions. No 
society can exist without constitutional powers 
and possessions. There must, then, of necessity 
be a division of rights and possessions between 
men as individuals and men in collective organic 
bodies. There is no such thing as unlimited 
personal liberty. Every organic collective body 
essential to man's moral, material and spiritual 
welfare has rights and must be protected in 
them; especially is this true of civil govern- 
ments. The matter, therefore, of distinguishing 
between that that rightfully belongs to the indi- 
vidual and that that rightfully belongs to an 
organic collective body, becomes a matter of 
supremest importance; disregard for this dis- 
tinction, a matter of supremest danger. But 

16 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 17 

while this principle holds throughout all organic 
bodies, it is not our purpose to follow it beyond 
its application to civil governments in this dis- 
cussion. 

No civil government of any size can do busi- 
ness without constitutional rights and a working 
capital. It has its expenses and must meet 
them. And if the distinction between that that 
rightfully belongs to the public and that that 
rightfully belongs to the individual was always 
rightfully made and observed, no government 
would ever be without a working capital. Nei- 
ther would labor ever be taxed to supply a treas- 
ury bankrupted by theft or by unwise legisla- 
tion. And any civilization that does not regard 
and enforce this distinction between public and 
private rights, is essentially unchristian and 
oppressive, and headed toward destruction. 

All true reform measures must likewise recog- 
nize this distinction. The weakness of many 
reform movements is their narrowness ; they are 
too exclusive. No public measure in conflict 
with essential private rights can succeed without 
injuring the individual. Upon the other hand, 
no private or corporate measure in conflict with 
public interests can succeed without injuring the 
public. These rights are equally sacred and 
must be equally conserved, or friction, wrongs, 
oppression, tyranny and injustice of every sort 
will appear. 



18 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 

The most casual observer cannot fail to see 
that a large per cent of our industrial, social and 
civil troubles as a nation have had their origin 
in the confusion and abuse of public and private 
rights, and not until the distinction between 
these rights is more clearly defined and enforced 
will these difficulties disappear. 

It is an undeniable fact that our public lands 
have been squandered, our cities plundered of 
their franchises, and other public possessions 
turned into private channels for private uses. 
Not a few of our millionaires and multi-million- 
aires have become such by the private possession 
or use of that which belonged to the city, the 
state, or the nation, and just to the extent that 
these organic collective bodies have been de- 
prived of their rightful possessions, the burdens 
upon labor have been correspondingly increased. 

It could not be otherwise. These institutions 
must meet their current expenses, or cease to 
exist; and when deprived of their natural re- 
sources they have been compelled to levy a tax 
upon labor. 

The reforms most urgently needed at present, 
therefore, are, first, the restoration to our various 
civil governments of their respective rights and 
resources; and, second, the restoration of all civil 
governments to the people. The government con- 
trol of a public utility amounts to nothing if 
that government is controlled by a corporation. 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 19 

political boss, ring, or machine. One reform 
without the other would be useless. Govern- 
ments must not only own and control all public 
utilities, but must themselves be owned and con- 
trolled by the people. Restore to governments 
their rightful possessions, and then restore to 
the people their rightful governments, and you 
will have the key to the solution of about all of 
the national evils of which we complain, and 
under which we groan. 



FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES ILLUS- 
TRATED. 

Take, for instance, the land question. Pri- 
marily, all lands belonged to the government, 
and the people are now beginning to see that 
perpetual right to no part of the public domain 
should ever have been granted to any individual. 
No man can live in this world without the use of 
land; it is as essential to his existence, and as 
God-given, as air or water. His use of land, 
therefore, should be regulated by law in the in- 
terest of all men, and not of the few. But un- 
fortunately our government has erred at this 
point, so that large tracts of land that should 
have been held in trust for homes have been 
given to corporations and to individuals for 
speculative and commercial purposes. Much of 
the public domain given to railroad and to other 
companies was given to foster internal improve- 
ments; but the excess to which this has been 
carried and the instances of fraud which have 
been perpetrated, have greatly modified the sup- 
posed good in these enormous land grants. 
The land grants to railroad companies alone now 
amount to 215,000,000 acres, an area almost 
equal to eight States the size of Ohio. At a 

20 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 21 

moderate price for farms this land would have 
more than paid the national debt at its highest 
point; or it would have built all the railroads 
for which they were given; or it would have 
given to every man, woman and child in the 
United States, upon the basis of the census of 
1890, almost thtfty acres of land. 

But the evil does not stop with land grants to 
railroad corporations. Vast areas of the public 
domain have been secured at a nominal cost by 
foreign capitalists for speculative purposes. 
The public records show that fifty-six foreign 
corporations and persons now own 26,000,000 
acres of land in the United States, of which 
7,500,000 are owned by two Dutch syndicates, 
1,800,000 by one English syndicate, and 500,000 
by one Scotch syndicate. And of the foreign 
individuals now owning land in the United 
States, Baron Tweedsdale claims 1,750,000 acres, 
Byron H. Evans 700,000 acres, M. Ellerhousen 
600,000 acres, Robt. Tenant 530,000, and the 
Duke of Southerland 422,000 acres, besides 
many smaller tracts to many others.* 

Neither is this the end of the evil. The num- 
ber of land-holders for homes and farming pur- 
poses in the United States is rapidly decreasing. 
Or, in other words, the homes and farms in the 



* For a larger discussion of this evil, see The Land Question, 
published by C. F. Taylor, 1520 Chestnut Street, Philadel- 
phia, Pa. 



32 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS- 

United States are rapidly passing into the hands 
of fewer owners. In 1880 there were 1,024,599 
renters in the United States. In 1890 this num- 
ber had increased to 1,624,431 renters, an in- 
crease of 599,832 in ten years. It is said that 
126,000,000 acres of our best farm lands in 
the United States are now owned by 115,940 
men, an average of over 1,000 acres each. The 
meaning of all of this is too plain for comment. 
It points to a centralization of wealth which, if 
not arrested, can be viewed only with alarm. It 
means that we are passing from a nation of land- 
owners to a nation of land-renters. If all of 
these lands were passing back to the control of 
the government, it would be the promise of bet- 
ter conditions; but this is not the case. As it 
now appears, it means the loss of rural inde- 
pendence, and in due time the serfdom of the 
people of the rural districts. 

We do not believe in the confiscation of prop- 
erty in any form ; nor is this necessary in order 
to right these wrongs; but we do believe that 
the absolute control of all land in the United 
States should have remained in the national 
government. The system of parting with the 
public domain in fractional sections has proved 
an open door for speculation, fraud and op- 
pression. Land given in perpetuity for homes 
should have been more carefully guarded and 
the door closed against speculators, land-rob- 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 23 

bers and franchise-grabbers. There is no reason 
why the title to a tract of land should be per- 
petual, and that to an invention limited to a 
term of years. If any difference, the argument 
for perpetuity of title is in favor of the inven- 
tion over that of the land. An invention is the 
product of the brain, while the land is the gift 
of God to all men. 

One of the best solutions of the land question 
we have yet seen is the Single Tax theory. We 
do not claim that the Single Tax theory is fault- 
less, but we do claim that it is founded in right- 
eousness, and if put into practical operation 
would mark a new era of prosperity in our 
nation. 

The Single Tax theory, as we understand it, is 
unfortunately named. Properly speaking. Single 
Taxers do not believe in any kind of tax what- 
ever. What is miscalled a land tax, in their 
theory, when rightly understood, is nothing more 
nor less than an equitable rent paid to the gov- 
ernment for the use of land according to its 
value. They would have but one landlord, the 
government, and put all users of land upon the 
common basis of renters. 

The fear that this system would work a hard- 
ship to farmers is wholly imaginary. The differ- 
ence is that rents now paid to landlords by rent- 
ers would be paid to the government ; but these 
rents would be greatly reduced. While the so- 



24 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 

called tax on land would be increased to include 
the tax on personal property, and paid to the 
government, not as a tax on land, but as a rental 
value for its use, the total of the farmer's tax 
would not be so great. To pay more taxes upon 
land and correspondingly less on personal prop- 
erty is not increasing a man's burdens even 
under the present system ; but under the Single 
Tax rule the present expensive system of tax- 
gathering would be abolished and a much sim- 
pler and cheaper plan substituted. 

But the beauty and righteousness of the Single 
Tax theory is that it would prevent the holding 
of land in large or small tracts for speculative 
purposes. Land owners or users would be com- 
pelled to improve their holdings, or part with 
them to parties who would improve or use them. 
All idle lands would be in the hands of the gov- 
ernment. There is no reason for believing that 
any honest farmer or user of land would be dis- 
turbed in his home, his plans, or his possessions 
by the Single Tax theory beyond that of the 
present system. If a man is a renter, and fails 
to pay his rent, or a tax-payer, aud fails to pay 
his taxes, as the law now is his holdings are 
placed in jeopardy, and they could not be more 
so under Single Tax rule.* 



* For a full presentation of the Single Tax doctrine and its 
merits, see Progress and Poverty, by Henry George. » 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 25 

The claims of a city to the site value of its 
lots seem to us to be indisputable; and if indis- 
putable, then the rents paid for their use should 
be paid to the city. The claims of the public to 
the agricultural, timber and mineral values of 
land seem also to be equally just. It hardly 
seems reasonable that God grew the great for- 
ests of the earth and planted vast treasures of 
iron, lead, zinc, tin, copper, gold, silver, granite, 
coal, oil and gas in its bowels for a few individ- 
uals, corporations and trusts. A more equitable 
distribution of these vast fields of wealth would, 
it seems to us, far better comport with the doc- 
trine of the fatherhood of God and the brother- 
hood of man. 

That the government is allowing these vast 
treasures to pass to private owners without proper 
recompense to the public is an injustice of such 
magnitude that it seems to entirely elude the 
grasp of the public mind. Certainly there must 
be some way whereby this peculiarly legalized 
system of robbery can be arrested and this 
wealth turned into the hands of its rightful 
owners. If not the wealth already accumulated 
by individuals, corporations, syndicates and 
trusts from public possessions, let us insist that 
what yet remains of the earth, on the earth, and 
under the earth, in the United States, shall be 
held in trust for the public and not for juggling 
politicians and greedy corporations. Let the 



26 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 

government lease its lands, its forests and its 
mines upon some basis whereby these resources 
shall become sources of revenue that will, in 
some degree at least, afford relief to the tax- 
payer. In this way the people for whom God 
created these mines of wealth would at least 
share with those who work them. Canada has 
already adopted a profit-sharing plan in the 
Klondike gold fields. 

Next to the land question is that of public 
utilities. A government has no moral right 
whatever to give to any individual, corpora- 
tion or trust any of its possessions without 
adequate compensation therefor. To do so 
is to rob the public of its just holdings. One of 
the strongest arguments in favor of the govern- 
ment ownership and control of all railways and 
telegraph lines, and of the municipal ownership 
and control of all municipal franchises, outside 
of their moral rights, is the fact that franchise- 
grabbers and robbers are opposed to the scheme. 
And the humorous part of it is that they are op- 
posed to it on the ground that it would increase 
the facilities for civil and municipal corruption. 
About all manufacturers of intoxicating liquors 
are opposed to legal prohibition for similar rea- 
sons. 

That a city should give to any individual or 
corporation the right to operate cars on its 
streets at a profit that pays large dividends on 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 27 

watered stock, without due compensation to the 
public, is a crime of the first magnitude. Street 
cars should be run at the cost of labor, and the 
interest on actual investments, or else the 
profits turned over to the cities; and what is 
true of street railway franchises is true of every 
municipal franchise. Without the city these 
franchises would have no value. The same is 
true of railway and telegraph lines. Their val- 
ues are created by the public and belong to the 
public. 

The arguments in favor of municipal, state 
and national control of all lands, mines and pub- 
lic utilities may be briefly stated as follows: 

1. It is a question of 7noral right. All lands, 
mines, canals, railways and municipal franchises 
are public rights by virtue of their dependence 
upon the public for their values. Many of the 
millions now owned by many of the millionaires 
by all moral rights belong to the public, and 
ought to have been paid into our municipal, 
state and national treasuries, less interest on 
actual investments, in the place of taxes directly 
and indirectly collected from individual holdings. 

2. It would take out of politics one of the 
chief causes of political corruption. Our public 
utilities are a continual temptation to unscrupu- 
lous politicians, speculators and wealth-seekers. 
They have been used for political spoils, political 
pulls and for personal emoluments. They have 



28 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 

been bartered away for a mess of pottage, given 
birth to a horde of "boodle" politicians, and made 
the basis of some of the most oppressive and 
tyrannical monopolies. 

3. Traffic in public utilities has had a demor- 
alizing effect upon business. It has stimulated 
the thirst for sudden wealth, fostered the specu- 
lative spirit, created unjust competition, preju- 
diced men against the more legitimate invest- 
ments, and, by use of fictitious capital, oppressed 
labor and robbed the people. 

4. It would discourage strikes by paying labor- 
ers better wages and giving them more satisfactory 
working hours. Some of the worst industrial 
upheavals this country has yet known have oc- 
curred in a private business founded upon some 
one or other of our public utilities. 

5. Profits from the operation and use of these 
utilities by the governtnent would greatly reduce 
taxes. There are urgent moral reasons why all 
forms of government should raise their revenue 
for current and other expenses, in part at least, 
from what in all justice belongs to the public, in- 
stead of the present direct and indirect system of 
taxation. If properly adjusted, about all reve- 
nues for governmental purposes could be raised 
by rentals on lands, mines and forests, and from 
the profits or rentals of public utilities, instead 
of taxes levied upon individual holdings. 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 29 

6. The government control of the railroads 
upon the postal system would put all men upon an 
equal footing as to the marhets, and do away with 
special favors to the larger shippers. It has been es- 
timated that the government could take full con- 
trol of the railroads in the United States, and 
operate them upon the postal system at an aston- 
ishingly low and uniform rate for both passenger 
and freight traffic. In the June number of The 
Coming Age, 1899, is a valuable article on this 
subject by Jas. L. Cowles, entitled "The Post 
Office the Citadel of American Liberty." Mr. 
Cowles is the author of a bill now in Congress 
seeking such a change in our railway system. He 
has estimated that the government can operate 
all of the railroads in the United States on the 
postal system at the following fares : 

By local post, ordinary cars, 5 cents per trip. 
By local post, palace cars, 25 cents per trip. 
By express post, ordinary cars, 25 cents per trip. 
By express post, palace cars, $1 per trip. 
By fast post, ordinary cars, $1 per trip. 
By fast post, palace cars, $5 per trip. 

These fares are only for continuous trips in one 
direction, without stop-over privileges; when 
necessary, transfers would be provided until the 
trip was completed. 

The freight schedule contemplated by the bill- 
is as follows : 



30 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 

By local post, per standard box car, $6 per haul. 

By local post, per standard open car, |5 per haul. 

By local post, per ton in box car, $1 per haul. 

By local post, per 100 pounds in box car, 5 cents per haul. 

By local post, per ton in open car, 50 cents per haul. 

By local post, per 100 pounds in open car, 2}4 cents per haul. 

The above figures might require some change 
after a trial, but the plan is certainly an ideal 
one, and has every appearance of practicability. 
The rates are based on the speed and conven- 
iences of the trains used, and not on miles or 
distance. Under such a schedule a man could 
travel from New York City to San Francisco for 
any one of the fares named in the schedule as he 
might elect, and the farmer in the inland or 
Western States would be as near the markets as 
any farmer on the coast or near the larger cities. 
Under this bill there would be no free passes, 
free baggage, rebates nor special rates. But for 
further particulars about this system we must 
refer the reader to the article referred to in The 
Coming Age, or Senate bill number 4,935. 

7. The rental system of lands would release 
vast tracts of land for homestead purposes now 
held by speculators. It would also release vast 
sums of money for more legitimate investments. 
Under the rental or single tax rule men could not 
afford to keep land for speculative purposes. 
They would have to improve it or let it pass to 
those who would. 



/PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 31 

8. The rental or profit-sharing system of all 
mines luould prevent their waste., or the building 
up of oppressive trusts or their falling into the 
hands of men who have no conception of the right 
use of wealth nor interest in their fellow-men. It 
would render unto Caesar — the government — the 
things that are Caesar's. 

y. The municipal, state and national owner- 
ship of all lands, mines, forests and public utili- 
ties would then constitute a substantial business 
basis for the issuance, when necessary, of munici- 
pal, state and national bonds. Our cities, states 
and the nation are about the only institutions in 
our civilization that issue bonds on what they 
do not own. There is something peculiarly 
averse to sound business and sound morals in a 
government selling or giving away its legitimate 
possessions, and then afterwards issuing blanket 
mortgages in the shape of bonds on them. 

Still other arguments might be advanced in 
the support of the municipal, state and national 
ownership of lands, mines, railroads and other 
public utilities, but it is not within the purpose 
of this book to treat the subject exhaustively. 

Certain qualifications in the arguments pre- 
sented, however, might assist the reader to a 
clearer conception of the general subject. 

It is not claimed that the Single Tax theory 
would be satisfactory without all the relative 
conditions advocated by its distinguished author, 



32 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 

Henry George, obtaining. To think of the Sin- 
gle Tax theory obtaining in this land under pres- 
ent industrial and commercial conditions is to 
see it confronted with almost defeating obsta- 
cles. The ideal Single Tax contemplates abso- 
lute free trade, and the municipal, state and 
national ownership or control of all lands, mines, 
forests, canals, railways, and other public utili- 
ties. 

Again, whether public utilities should be 
owned and operated by the government at cost, 
or at a profit for revenue, is a question iu which 
there may be room for argument. In either 
case, however, there would be a great saving to 
the people. If owned by the government and 
operated at fair living expenses for the em- 
ployees, there would be a corresponding saving 
to the people in the decrease of tariffs. But if 
the government owned yet leased its utilities to 
companies to operate them, unless well safe- 
guarded, the expenses of the lease would soon be 
added to the operating costs, and tariffs corre- 
spondingly increased. The argument as it stands 
to-day points most strongly to the government 
control of the utilities, either at reasonable 
operating expenses, or else at a profit for reve- 
nue in the place of taxes. The taxing of fran- 
chises, incomes and estates looks toward a rem- 
edy for some of the evils underlying our present 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 33 

system, but does not cover the ground; does not 
remedy the difficulty. 

But our contention is chiefly for the principles 
involved in this discussion rather than plans that 
have been suggested for working them out. 
Whatever may be thought of the plans, the 
principles are of vital importance to the future 
welfare of this nation, and the people are begin- 
ning to appreciate them. And we believe the 
time is at hand for their embodiment in some 
practical way. If better plans can be suggested 
than those given, the people are ready to hear 
them; if not, the plans already suggested, to-wit, 
the municipal, state and national control of all 
public possessions, utilities and rights, will be 
put in operation in whole or in part in the near 
future. Public sentiment is now so strong in 
favor of these reforms that they can hardly be 
prevented. The people will not be satisfied 
until a trial of them has been made. 

The objections urged against the government 
ownership of public utilities as seen in European 
countries do not hold against the theory as advo- 
cated in America. The conditions are too dis- 
similar to give weight to the objections. 

Upon the other hand, where the control of 
street-railways, water-works and gas-plants has 
been given a fair trial, as in Glasgow, Scotland, 
and a few other cities, wholly or partially, the ex- 
periment has resulted favorably to the doctrine. 



GOVERNMENTS MUST BE RETAINED IN 
THE HANDS OF THE PEOPLE. 

Next to the need of a restoration to munici- 
pal, state and national governments of all their 
respective rights, privileges and possessions, is 
the need of a complete restoration to the people 
of their essential governments. A government 
of, by and for the people is the American con- 
ception, and it should be adhered to. The dark 
cloud on our government to-day is the fact that 
it is too largely controlled by trusts, rings, ma- 
chines, bosses, corporations or other private in- 
terests ; it is ceasing to be a representative gov- 
ernment. Primary elections, '*boodle," "spoils," 
campaign "barls," party platforms, lobbies, 
subsidized newspapers and other factors and 
agencies are made use of to defeat the will of 
the people, and unless these evils can be over- 
come there is little hope for relief or improve- 
ment from any of the reforms suggested. The 
reins of government must be taken out of the 
hands of machines, trusts, corporations, or other 
private interests, and restored to the people. 

Experience has demonstrated that it is unwise 
to trust the government of a city. State or na- 
tion to any one party, political or religious, per- 

34 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 35 

manently; sooner or later they begin to abuse 
their trusts, use their power to the advancement 
of their party, or otherwise corrupt, pervert and 
destroy the government. It is necessary to have 
changes of administration; or, better still, to 
have a strictly representative government. 

One of the latest and most promising reforms 
in the direction indicated is that of Direct Leg- 
islation by what is called the * 'Initiative, Refer- 
endum and the Recall measure." 

While Direct Legislation involves no new prin- 
ciple of government, it would be far-reaching in 
its effect upon the laws and conditions of our 
country. It is merely the extension of a princi- 
ple which lies at the bottom of our political sys- 
tem. 

DIRECT LEGISLATION. 

Direct Legislation may be explained, briefly, 
as follows : 

1st. The Initiative. — By the Initiative a 
certain per cent (say five per cent) of the citi- 
zens could compel any new legislation they might 
desire, which lawmakers fail or refuse to act 
upon. By this the people could compel the en- 
actment of laws more conducive to the welfare 
of the public. 

2d. The Referendum. — By this, upon demand 
of a certain per cent (say five per cent) of the 
citizens in a district affected, any measure passed 



36 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 

by a lawmaking body could be submitted to a 
direct vote of the people for approval or disap- 
proval at the next following election. This 
would give the people the right of vetoing laws 
enacted against the public welfare. 

3d. The Kecall. — By this power a majority 
of voters could recall any public official who 
might prove inefficient or unfaithful to his 
duties. This would give to the public immediate 
relief from an incompetent or dangerous official. 

The arguments in favor of this measure are so 
clear and strong that it seems that they need 
only to be stated to be accepted. Direct Legis- 
lation means honesty, fair play, and better laws 
for the people. It would rob political dema- 
gogues and tricksters of their power, defeat 
boodlers and lobbyists in their influence over 
our lawmakers, and separate between politics 
and legislation. It would facilitate legislative 
reforms. 

In the language of another: 

**Every meritorious plank in the Republican, 
Democratic, Populist, Liberalist, Prohibition, or 
other platforms, would be more certain of 
speedy adoption under Direct Legislation than 
under the present method. Now we must not 
only convert the voter to the desired reform, but 
also convince him that its adoption is of such 
importance that he must be willing to see other 
issues or candidates he may be friendly to de- 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 37 

feated, if need be, in order to get the one re- 
form. By means of Direct Legislation the voter 
could vote directly for what he favors, not em- 
bracing men or measures obnoxious to him." 

The constitution in each State would have to 
be amended before such a law could be enacted, 
and steps should be taken at once in each State 
to have such an amendment submitted to the 
people at the earliest opportunity. The people 
have a right to say what laws shall govern them, 
and no man or party should oppose the adoption 
of such a measure in any city or State. 

HOME RULE FOR CITIES. 

Next to the Initiative and Referendum, where- 
by the power of legislation is placed in the 
hands of the people, we should seek home rule 
for our larger cities in all local matters. 

It is becoming more and more apparent that 
large cities must have larger legal privileges in 
the management of purely local matters. Home 
rule for cities is one of the rapidly approaching 
events of the future. As a reform measure it is 
rapidly coming into favor. In the North Amer- 
ican Review for June, 1900, Bird S. Coler 
argues strongly for a larger independence for 
municipalities, for commercial and other rea- 
sons. Two governments in a city, state and mu- 
nicipal, cannot exist without friction, detri- 
mental to the business and morals of the city. 



38 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 

The state's control of a city's local matters 
afford too many temptations to political corrup- 
tionists. The experience of our larger cities 
have demonstrated that the state's control of 
their local affairs is unwise and dangerous. The 
people of a city must hold the reins of govern- 
ment in their own hands in all matters pertain- 
ing strictly to the city. Under the present order 
of things there is too much machinery — too 
many chances for boodle. Things could and 
should be simplified. There is no reason why a 
city should not be run on strictly business prin- 
ciples the same as any other business enterprise 
or corporation. There is no reason why there 
should be any politics in a city government at 
all. 

TO SIMPLIFY MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENTS. 

After securing home rule for our larger cities, 
efforts should be made to simplify their govern- 
ments and protect them against selfish politi- 
cians, boodle aldermen and franchise-grabbers. 
One of the best suggestions that has come to our 
knowledge on reforms in municipal government, 
outside of their divorcement from the state, and 
the adoption of the Initiative and the Referen- 
dum, is that of Orlando J. Smith, in a book re- 
cently issued by the Brandur Publishing Com- 
pany, New York City, entitled '*The Coming 
Democracy." 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 39 

Mr. Smith's theory is that a city should be 
governed by a board of directors elected annu- 
ally, as in any other corporate body, the board 
to be thoroughly representative. To secure this 
Mr. Smith suggests the following unique method: 
Let each political party in the city have its 
ticket at each voting precinct at each municipal 
election. Each voter then selects the party 
ticket most agreeable to his method of thought. 
The number of tickets voted by each party de- 
termines the number of directors each party is 
entitled to have on the board. But the most 
striking feature of this system is that no voter is 
entitled to vote for more than one man on the 
board at any one election. On each party-ticket 
there is a blank space in which to write the 
name of any one person who, in the judgment of 
the voter, is competent to a place on the board. 

The results of an election under Mr. Smith's 
system would be determined as follows: 

1st. The number of tickets voted by each 
party would determine the representation of 
each party on the board. 

2d. The persons on each set of party-tickets 
voted receiving the highest number of votes, up 
to the number of persons to which each party 
was entitled on the board, would be the persons 
elected to fill those places. In this way the 
board would always be thoroughly representa- 
tive. 



40 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 

Such a system would head off all wire-pullers, 
ward-healers, machine-slates, and other persons 
and methods from tampering with and defeating 
an honest ballot. The voter would be absolutely 
free and his vote absolutely secret, if he so 
wanted. There would be no slate-ticket to vote, 
no convention nominee, no primary elections. 
Primary elections are the bane of politics and a 
nuisance to business and professional men. This 
system would eliminate this evil. 



MONEY. 

We wish next to speak of money as a function 
of the government. The political discussion of 
this subject is bewildering, and intentionally so. 
Upon no subject has more foolish things been 
said than upon the money question. That it is 
somewhat of an intricate and involved question 
is admitted, but that does not mean that it is too 
deep for the common people to comprehend. 

One of the first things to understand about 
money is that it is a creature of law. Any mate- 
rial substance may have a commercial or other 
value in the world, according to its use, but it 
cannot have a money-value without the sanction 
of law. The right to coin or create money is a 
prerogative of the government. 

The article or articles selected by a govern- 
ment to be used as money may or may not have 
a value or values other than that imparted by 
law. The distinction between the legal or money 
value of a piece of gold, or a piece of silver, or 
a piece of nickel, or a piece of copper, or a piece 
of paper, is as clear in one case as the other, 
and as clear in all of them as the difference be- 
tween the seed and the food- value of corn, the 
farm-value and the gambling-value of a race- 
horse, or the sentimental and the real value of 

41 



42 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 

an heirloom. In the case of gold the two values 
— the legal and the commercial — coincide, are 
equal; in the other substances named they differ, 
the greatest difference being in the case of paper 
money. 

The value of all money proceeds from the gov- 
ernment. The idea that all money must carry 
an intrinsic or commercial value equivalent to 
its legal or money value is absurd. The asser- 
tion is contradicted by history, by facts and by 
actual conditions in every civilized nation. No 
nation has yet existed that has not used money 
the intrinsic value of which was less than its 
money value, and this has been and is to-day 
especially true of the United States. 

The general stock of money in the United 
States, June 1, 1900, is given as follows: 

Gold Coin (including bullion in Treasury), $1,041,531,374 

Standard Silver Dollars 487,497,976 

Subsidiary Silver 81,672,075 

Treasury Notes of 1890 79,440,000 

United States Notes 346,681,016 

National Bank Notes 300,569,759 

Total 2,337,392,300 

Of this total the amount in circulation June 1, 
1900, is placed at $2,074,687,871. But this in- 
cludes much that is not in actual circulation. Of 
the gold said to be in circulation the repoit says 
that there is $618,624,530 in coin, and $204,049,- 
299 in gold certificates. By circulation this 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 43 

report probably means that there is this amount 
scattered about over the country, but in bank 
vaults, etc. Of the silver dollars in circulation 
the report gives $67,645,528, and of silver cer- 
tificates $408,477,649, nearly double the gold 
certificates. 

During the last two years the volume of cur- 
rency has been considerably enlarged by trade 
with foreign nations and by legislation, and 
there has been a corresponding stimulus given to 
trade, which practically demonstrates the cor- 
rectness of the claims of those persons who ad- 
vocate bimetallism or an independent national 
paper currency. Even if the purported two 
billions of dollars of all kinds of money were in 
actual circulation, as claimed in the above fig- 
ures, the amount would still be inadequate to 
present demands. The greatest prosperity the 
people of this nation have yet known — not the 
trusts — was at a time (1865) when they had a 
currency as good as gold and a volume of it 
equal to $50 per capita. Now it is but little 
more than half that amount per capita, and 
everybody who knows anything about our pres- 
ent currency system knows that there is not two 
billion dollars of money in circulation. It is 
chiefly in the hands of capitalists and trusts, or 
hoarded in vaults, and the prosperity of which 
so much has been said has chiefly been a pros- 
perity of the trusts and larger corporations 



44 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 

rather than of the country. The prosperity the 
nation needs, and that the people are looking for 
and are justly entitled to, is a prosperity in which 
they can justly share, and this they cannot have 
without an adequate currency. Any attempt, 
therefore, to contract the currency, whether by 
demonetizing silver, eliminating the greenbacks, 
or a corner on the money market, is a crime of 
the worst sort. We need to enlarge, not to con- 
tract, our present volume of money. 

There are now three systems of money promi- 
nently before the American people. They are 
the Gold Standard, the Bimetallic Standard and 
the Multiple Standard. The latter is compara- 
tively new. The Gold Standard is based upon 
one article of commerce — gold; the Bimetallic 
Standard is based upon two articles of commerce, 
gold and silver; the Multiple Standard proposes 
a currency based upon all of the leading commo- 
dities of life. Concerning the respective merits 
of these systems we can speak only in brief. 

The Gold Standard is based upon the theory 
that the commercial or intrinsic value of the 
article used for money must be equal to its face 
value. This, as before stated, is a false concep- 
tion of money. It would be just as wise to argue 
that a "title to a piece of land must be written 
on a plate of gold of equal value to the land." 
In the language of another : 

**The object of commerce is not to get gold. 



, 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 45 

In 999 out of a thousand sales the vendor does 
not want gold or silver. The dollar is not sought 
by him for the sake of the 23.22 grains of gold 
in it. Most of the dollars he gets contain no 
grains of gold at all, but are made of paper. He 
does not think of asking for gold, and would 
deem it a burden if he were required to take 
large payments in gold. His object is to ex- 
change his commodities for other commodities, 
and he takes money because it is a convenient 
means of making that exchange. The pic7yose 
of money is not to convey a certain weight of 
gold, 23 grains to the dollar, or any other num- 
ber of grains to the dollar, but to transfer a pur- 
chasing power equal to that of the goods which 
are being paid for, or the loan that is being 
liquidated. The receiver of the dollar takes it 
because it will buy the means of life and happi- 
ness — commodities in the broad sense. The 
dollar is taken as the representative of the 
means of living, the representative of commodi- 
ties ; and in order that it may be a true repre- 
sentative it must be based on commodities and 
kept in harmony with them." — Parsons. 

The objections to the Gold Standard, in brief, 
are as follows: 

1. It is a physical impossibility for a nation 
to transact all of its business with a gold cur- 
rency, or upon a gold basis. The total currency 
of the United States is now more than two 



46 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 

billion dollars, of which less than one-third is 
gold. Imagine this nation trying to transact its 
business on $600,000,000 in gold, even if it could 
retain all of this at all times in the country and 
in circulation. Wendell Phillips once said: "If 
England, the richest nation in the world, the 
reservoir and refuge of coin, cannot, without 
subterfuge, support one specie-paying bank in 
London, the world's business-center, how can we 
expect to hoard gold enough to form a basis for 
two thousand (now over twice that number) 
banks scattered over the continent?" 

2. It is an uncertain quantity. On this point 
we cannot do better than to quote from Ex-Sen- 
ator Ingles' great speech in the Senate Feb. 15, 
1878. He said: "No people in a great emer- 
gency ever found a faithful ally in gold. It is 
the most cowardly and treacherous of all metals. 
It makes no treaty it does not break. It has no 
friend it does not soonor or later betray. Armies 
and navies are not maintained by gold. In times 
of panic and calamity, shipwreck and disaster, 
it becomes the agent and minister of ruin. No 
nation ever fought a great war by the aid of 
gold. On the contrary, in the crisis of the great- 
est peril it becomes an enemy more potent than 
the foe in the field ; but when the battle is won 
and peace has been secured, gold reappears and 
claims the fruits of victory. In our own Civil 
War it is doubtful if the gold of New York and 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 47 

London did not work us greater injury than the 
powder and lead and iron of the South. It was 
the most invincible enemy of the public credit. 
Gold paid no soldier or sailor. It refused the 
National obligations. It was worth most when 
our fortunes were the lowest. Every defeat 
gave it increased value. It was in open alliance 
with our enemies the world over, and all its en- 
ergies were evoked for our destruction. But as 
usual, when danger had been averted and the 
victory secured, gold swaggers to the front and 
asserts its supremacy." 

3. It cannot be kept in the country. One 
has only to watch the money-centers of the 
world to see the truth of this statement. It is 
always on the go, first to one country, then to 
another. It is the most migratory of all metals. 
It is always in search of the securest places or the 
largest profits. Any nation dependent upon 
gold for money may be robbed of its currency by 
another nation, or by its own people at any time. 

4. It cannot be kept in circulation. Let a 
panic or a scare come, and gold suddenly dis- 
appears, it goes into hiding. We have had 
ample demonstrations of this in our own na- 
tional history. The disposition to hoard gold is 
strong even in times of prosperity, and this dis- 
position becomes an almost uncontrollable pas- 
sion at the sight of approaching danger. It was 
estimated, or rather guessed, that more than 



48 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 

half of the gold in the United States went into 
hiding during the last panic; the balance was 
locked up in the vaults of banks and of the 
nation. 

5. It is an instrument of panics. In Mr. 
Parsons' book on "Rational Money," he says: 

"Looking over the history of England and 
America, we find that panics of the first magni- 
tude occurred in England in 1763, 1783, 1793, 
1797, 1816, 1825, 1837-8, 1847, 1857, 1866, 1875 
and 1890-3, and in the United States in 1819, 
1825, 1837, 1839, 1847, 1857, 1873 and 1893 (with 
a plentiful supply of lesser disasters in interme- 
diate years), and every one of them was either 
directly caused by the movement of money, or 
grew to ruinous dimensions because the money 
volume failed to expand at the proper time to 
relieve the financial pressure, metallic money 
being far more apt to shrink away and hide itself 
in time of danger than to come to the rescue of 
commerce when credit money is shaken." 

The Bimetallic Standard is an improvement on 
the Gold Standard in that it decreases the ability 
of money gamblers and manipulators to control 
and corner the nation's currency. When money 
is to be cornered by gamblers, they want every 
avenue of relief for the people whom it is their 
intention to rob closed. The intentional con- 
traction of a nation's currency is a crime differ- 
ing from a corner on money only in degree. The 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 49 

demonitization of silver was an act purely in the 
interest of Wall Street. 

The chief objection to silver is not that it is 
dishonest money — it is as honest as any other 
money bearing the impress of national authority; 
not that it is a forty-five-cent dollar — no man 
has yet refused to take a United States silver 
dollar at its face value — but that it is subject to 
the same faults of gold, already mentioned, in a 
large measure; and, second, that, joined with 
gold, the two metals do not furnish the country 
with an adequate currency. The currency now 
in the United States, all told, is far too small at 
two billions of dollars, and yet the total of all 
coin in the United States in circulation hardly 
equals one billion. Even if all of this coin could 
be kept in the country and in circulation, it 
could not possibly do the business of the country. 

The objection of some capitalists and politi- 
cians to silver is not that the silver dollar lacks 
intrinsic value, but that it decreases their power 
over the currency of the nation by increasing its 
volume. They would like to have the green- 
backs out of the way for the same reason that 
the coinage of silver was stopped. The fight 
for the reopening of the mints to the coinage of 
silver and for the greenbacks is therefore a fight 
for public as against private rights ; a fight for 
the people as against the capitalists of the na- 
tion ; a fight for larger commercial and industrial 



50 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 

liberties as against money famines and panics. 

The Multiple system, now advocated by some 
of the ablest men of the nation, and rapidly 
growing in favor, is a proposition to issue a na- 
tional paper currency wholly independent of 
banks, and based upon the largest possible num- 
ber of commodities for its basic value. This, it 
is argued, will give the people an adequate, flex- 
ible and safe currency of uniform value at all 
times and in all places. 

In his California speeches, as reported in the 
Denver New Road of July, 1897, Mr. Bryan ad- 
mitted that neither gold nor silver represents an 
honest dollar. *'An honest dollar," said he, "is 
a dollar that will always buy the same amount of 
products; and if such a dollar could be con- 
structed, a man would not be called upon in ten 
years to pay back a debt in dollars worth four 
times the dollar he borrowed; neither would he 
be enabled to pay off a debt with dollars four 
times as cheap as the dollar he borrowed." The 
report continues: "Mr. Bryan advocates a paper 
dollar based upon ten leading products of the 
nation, and when he does so he recommends the 
most scientific money the world ever saw. Given 
a dollar based upon oats, corn, wheat, rye, petro- 
leum, pork, cotton, sugar, tobacco and coal, the 
value of which would be controlled by the aver- 
age of these commodities, would give us 'an 
honest dollar.' " 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 51 

The Multiple system embodies the principle 
indicated by Mr. Bryan, but proposes to enlarge 
the basis of the dollar so as to include all of the 
leading products of the nation instead of ten. 
We have not the space to go into the merits 
claimed for this system in detail, neither does 
that come within the scope of this book, but we 
cannot pass the matter without some further 
explanatory remarks. 

In the first phice, paper money is coming to be 
the money of all modern civilizations. The peo- 
ple want neither gold nor silver beyond the small 
transactions of daily life. During the last panic 
in New York City paper money was at a higher 
premium than gold — 4 to 1 per cent. And of the 
$487,497,976 silver dollars in the United States 
over $400,000,000 circulates in the form of silver 
certificates. Of the gold over one-third is in 
gold certificates. The people do not want 
metallic money. 

In the next place, they are entitled to a safe 
currency, and in this they cannot improve upon 
the credit of the nation. Even gold can be pur- 
chased by national bonds in any market. 

And in the third place, they are entitled to a 
currency at the lowest cost, and this they cannot 
have when the right to furnish the currency is 
delegated to national banks, or other corpora- 
tions, or dictated by capitalists. 

The Multiple system, therefore, seems to em- 



53 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 

body all of the essential elements of an ideal 
national currency. It is safe, having the wealth 
and the authority of the nation behind it; it is 
honest, in that it holds both buyer and seller, 
debtor and creditor, to the same uniform stand- 
ard of values; it is adequate, because not limited 
to mines; it is independent money, because not 
issued nor controlled by banks or foreign finan- 
cial conditions. It is said that "for over six hun- 
dred years Venice had no commercial panic. Her 
independent national money, under wise public 
management, was always so well adjusted to the 
needs of trade that a crisis was impossible." 

**It is clearly absurd to say that the Govern- 
ment cannot give value to paper. An individual 
can do it, why not a nation? A deed has value, 
and a note, and a bit of manuscript. Tennyson 
could make a sheet of paper worth $1,000 by 
writing a few verses upon it. A postage stamp 
has value, and is just as good as gold or silver all 
over this country, although it is "irredeemable" 
in coin — redeemable in service only. Anything 
that is useful has value. The difference between 
gold money and paper money is not that gold has 
value and paper has none, but that the gold 
money has a value aside from its character as 
money. It has another utility, and therefore an- 
other source of value, while paper in general has 
only value as money, because it has only that 
one utility (or rather its other utilities are insig- 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 53 

nificant in comparison with its money utility, 
bulk for bulk). But in that utility it is as useful 
as gold, and therefore has the same value for 
money as gold, and frequently more." — Par- 
sons. 

Our present national currency is a mixture of 
all of the systems named, embarrassing alike to 
the government and the people. Instead of a 
currency founded on a composite basis, as it 
ought to be, we have a composite currency sup- 
posed to be based on gold. Aside from the in- 
convenience of so many kinds of money, 
although they are of equal value in commerce, 
all legal tender, the present system is objection- 
able: 

1. Because it is inadequate. The volume of 
money does not keep pace with the demands of 
the country. 

2. It is irresponsive. It does not quickly re- 
spond to the emergencies of trade. 

3. It is unnecessarily expensive. Paper could 
perform the same service, and release all of our 
gold and silver now locked up in metallic money. 
"This gold and silver could be used in produc- 
tive industry, or sent away to buy American se- 
curities held abroad, and pay American debts in 
foreign countries, relieving us of a considerable 
burden of interest, increasing the volume of 
money and raising prices across the water, 
whereby a better market would be made for our 



54 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 

products, and a bit of the prosperity that comes 
with the impetus of rising prices would be intro- 
duced into Europe." — Parsons, 

4. It enslaves the government to capitalists. 
The government is in bondage to its bondholders, 
and dare not conduct its financial and commer- 
cial affairs independent of their interests, as was 
shown in the new financial bill passed by the last 
Congress. 

5. It is a perversion of public rights to pri- 
vate uses. To delegate to national banks the 
right to furnish its subjects with money is an 
abuse of a fundamental principle of a righteous 
government, to say nothing of the additional in- 
terest-burden put upon the people by this 
method. 

6. It subjects the business of the country to 
money famines and panics at the will of money 
manipulators. Mr. Parsons says that * 'there is 
evidence tending to show that the panic of 1893 
was not entirely a natural phenomenon. The 
moneyed interests desired the unconditional re- 
peal of the silver-purchase law. It was openly 
said that *the quickest if not the only way to re- 
peal the silver-purchase law is to precipitate a 
panic upon the country, as nothing short of that 
will convince the silver men of their error and 
arouse public opinion to a point which will com- 
pel the next Congress to repeal the Sherman law 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 55 

whether it wants to or not. ' The panic came and 
the silver law was repealed." 

7. It promises no relief from the bondage of 
debt. It does not appear to be the intention of 
capitalists to whom the government is in bond- 
age to permit the payment of the national debt. 
Government bonds have been and will continue 
to be refunded as long as it can be done as a 
basis for a national bank currency and other rea- 
sons. 

8. Our present national bank notes are in 
violation of the American principle of govern- 
ment. They are simply corporation notes en- 
dorsed or secured by the government. National 
banks are simply private corporations doing 
business under a national title. The govern- 
ment's notes would be just as good if issued 
direct from the government as they now are 
issued by a national bank and endorsed by the 
government, and would be far less expensive to 
the people. National bank notes are another in- 
stance of the private use of a public right — of a 
species of favoritism that is becoming intoler- 
able to the American people. 

9. It is unnatural, because it is inadequate 
and arbitrarily forced upon the nation. 

10. It is unscientific, because the theory is 
mathematically incorrect and impossible. 

Take the present redemption fund of $150,- 
000,000 in gold, to be kept exclusively for the 



56 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 

redemption of greenbacks and treasury notes, of 
which there are jointly $426,121,016. According 
to the intrinsic-value theory, there ought to be a 
gold dollar actually in the national treasury for 
every dollar of United States and treasury notes 
in circulation, as in the case of the gold and sil- 
ver certificates; but as it is, the gold behind this 
volume of paper currency is less than thirty 
cents on the dollar. And yet some men make a 
great noise about an "honest dollar," a dollar 
worth 100 cents. This money is all honest 
money, and worth 100 cents on the dollar, but 
not on the intransic value theory. It is worth it 
because it is national money. On the intrinsic 
value theory the so-called 45-cent silver dollar is 
worth more than the greenback dollar, but on the 
national credit theory they are of equal value, 
and that is their face value of 100 cents on the 
dollar. To talk about gold enough to do the 
business of the country is to talk about an im- 
possibility; and to talk about a paper currency 
founded on gold is to beg the question and aban- 
don the theory. 

11. It is dangerous, because it subjects the 
interests of the country to conscienceless politi- 
cians, capitalists and gamblers. When the mon- 
eyed classes of the country threaten a financial 
earthquake if they cannot have the President 
they want, as was hinted in the campaign of 
1896, it is time that the interests of the country 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RIGHTS 57 

be placed beyond the reach of such anarchists. 
We have now carried this investigation as far 
as we contemplated in this treatise. In closing, 
permit us to again remind you that we are prima- 
rily concerned with the rights of the public. We 
are opposed to the invasion of these rights by 
mercenary, wealth-seeking individuals. We have 
briefly set forth some of the latest and best sug- 
gestions for preventing this very ancient system 
of robbery. We believe them to be practical 
and worthy of immediate trial by the people. 
We believe that they will be tried in the near 
future. If not practical, they will suggest reme- 
dies that are. What we want is to arouse the 
people to their privileges, their rights, their pos- 
sibilities. If our methods of civilized life are 
not to keep pace with our wants, our education, 
then we had better close up our schools and our 
colleges. But we cannot go backward. We 
must go forward. We can and must have *'a 
government by the people, of the people and for 
the people." The world is done with the **di- 
vine rights of kings" and the assumed rights of 
capital. Man and not money — character and not 
the dollar— liberty and not oppression must 
stand at the front of the civilization of the 
twentieth century. 



Appendix, 



The following classification of public and pri- 
vate rights, privileges and possessions may help 
to a clearer perception of the distinction between 
public and private right and of the reforms of 
which our civilization now stands in need : 



PRIVATE RIGHTS. 

All Trades. 

" Professions. 

" Arts. 

" Sciences. 

" Inventions. 

" Literature. 

" Private Schools. 

" Religion. 



PUBLIC RIGHTS. 

All Lands. 

" Mines. 

" Forests. 

" Railways. 

" Telegraph Lines. 

" Telephone Lines. 

" Street Railways. 

" Rivers. 

" Canals. 

" Harbors. 

" Municipal Water Works. 

" Municipal Light Plants. 

" Public Schools. 
And Qurrency (Money) 



For some of the latest and best literature on 
the things spoken of in this book we commend 
the reader to "Rational Money/' "The Land 
Question," and **A City for the People," all of 
which may be had by addressing "Equity 
Series," 1520 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, 
Pa., or the author of this book, 1522 Locust St., 
St. Louis. 

59 



60 APPENDIX. 

Since putting our message into type a new 
book has appeared from the press of Dodd, Mead 
&Co., New York, entitled, "Problems of Life," 
being selections from the writings and sermons 
of Rev. Lyman Abbott, D. D., by S. T. D., in 
which are some paragraphs on Labor and Gov- 
ernment that are so apt and timely that we 
cannot forbear the following quotations: 

"Industrial peace is to be brought about, not by 
a well-balanced conflict of self-interest, by capi- 
tal buying labor in the cheapest market, and 
labor selling itself in the highest market, and 
each trying to outwit the other, but by a frank 
recognition of partnership between the power of 
the brain and the power of the muscle, which 
should be united in the community as they are 
united in the individual, and should work to- 
gether for the largest service to humanity; not 
the greatest acquisition of wealth, but the great- 
est development of mankind.'' 

"Most commodities in our time — even agricul- 
tural commodities are gradually coming under 
these conditions — are produced by an organized 
body of working-men, carrying on their work 
under the superintendence of a 'captain of in- 
dustry,' and by the use of costly tools. This 
requires the co-operation of three classes, — the 
tool-owner or capitalist, the superintendent or 



APPENDIX 61 

manager, and the tool-user or laborer. The re- 
sult is the joint product of their industry, — and 
therefore belongs to them jointly. It is the bus- 
iness of political economy to ascertain how 
values can be equitably divided between these 
partners in a common enterprise. This is the 
labor question in a sentence.'* 

**Conciliation, the recognition by employer and 
employed that they are partners in a common 
enterprise; arbitration, the adjustment of all 
questions of self-interest, that cannot be ad- 
justed through conciliation, by reference to a 
mutually chosen tribunal ; and the intervention 
of law where public rights are infringed upon by 
controversy between laborer and capitalist, — this 
seems to me to be the application of Christ's 
method for the solution of the labor war, until 
we come to the full recognition of the fact that 
the working-man and capitalist are partners in a 
common enterprise, and the very motives of war 
cease to exist." 

"There are six standards by which we may 
measure any existing civilization : by the charac- 
ter of the government; by the condition of 
labor; by the moral standards which prevail in 
the social life ; by the state of the home and the 
position of woman; by the quality and extent of 



62 APPENDIX 

education ; and by the nature and influence of 
the religious institutions." 

"What is a Christian nation? Not a nation 
which has no vices, which has no foes within its 
own borders, which is perfect; but a nation 
which is battling against the evil within itself 
and against the evil without itself, and struggling 
toward a higher and better ideal of justice, 
mercy, truth, reverence. It is a nation which is 
endeavoring to give equal rights and equal jus- 
tice to all men; it is a nation which has consid- 
eration for the poor, the ignorant, the oppressed, 
and the suffering, and which loves mercy as well 
as it does justice; and it is a nation which shows 
reverence not merely nor mainly by temples in 
which its people assemble from time to time to 
pray and praise, but reverence, because it seeks 
to ascertain what are God's laws and to incor- 
porate those laws into its own commonwealth, 
and to conform its national life to those laws, 
and because in some measure it trusts to the 
forces which God has set at work in the world 
for obedience to those laws within its own com- 
monwealth; a nation which in its organic, legal, 
constitutional action does justice, loves mercy, 
and walks reverently and humbly. Just in the 
measure in which it attains this, in which it sets 
this ideal before it and walks toward this, is it a 
Christian nation. If a Christian is one '^ho 



APPENDIX 63 

serves others, then a Christian nation is one 
which seeks not its own glory, its own prestige 
and power, but seeks the welfare of the human 
race." 

"Government is founded on force; and no 
man has a right to use force against his fellow- 
man except to protect him from his own evil, to 
protect him from the evils threatened by others, 
or to protect others from evil threatened by him. 
The end of government is protection of life and 
of person and of property. Government takes 
from its citizens their property by force, — that 
is, taxation. Taxation is taking the property of 
a citizen by force ; because if he does not yield it 
voluntarily the government comes and takes it 
from him whether he will or not. But to take a 
man's property from him by force without ren- 
dering him a just equivalent is robbery. If it is 
done by one man, it is robbery; by a group of 
men, it is robbery; by a whole nation in its col- 
lective capacity, it is robbery. To take property 
from a single individual, or from a group of in- 
dividuals for the benefit of another individual or 
group of individuals, from one class for the ben- 
efit of another class, from one person for the 
benefit of another person, whether by taxation 
or by any other method, without the purpose of 
rendering a fair and legitimate equivalent there- 
for, is robbery. If it is done by a government. 



AUG 1 1900 

6i APPENDIX 

it is a governmental robbery. If it is done by 
military law, it is military robbery. If it is done 
by civil law, it is civil robbery. To hold a man 
down and rifle his pockets for the benefit of 
those who are rifling them, is robbery, no 
matter by whom, no matter under what forms of 
law it is done.*' 



BY J. H. GARRISON. 




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